Thursday Quick Links: More Random Randomness!

The Masked Downloader comes bearing a big ol' gift basket of...well, just about everything. If you can find a pattern here, please e-mail and let me know what it is (aside from the fact that all of the selections are incredibly interesting and offer loads of free and legal MP3s, of course).

LONG NOW PROJECT: A fascinating Web site with a wide selection of high-quality lectures and presentations. From the web site: "The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996 to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today's 'faster/cheaper' mind set and promote 'slower/better' thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years. The term was
coined by one of our founding board members, Brian Eno. When Brian first moved to New York City he found that in New York here and now meant this room and this five minutes, as opposed to the larger here and longer now that he was used to in England. We have since adopted the term as the title of our foundation as we are trying to stretch out what people consider as now." Highly recommended.

TWELVE BYZANTINE RULERS: From the Web site: “This history lecture podcast covers the little known Byzantine Empire through the study of twelve of its greatest rulers. Mr. Lars Brownworth presents this series for free through this website and the podcast section of the iTunes store. Mr. Brownworth teaches History at The Stony Brook School on Long Island, New York. His passion for Byzantine history has taken him on travels from the furthest reaches of the Byzantine Empire right into Constantinople, (present day Istanbul) the very heart of Byzantium. He has traveled and studied Byzantine history extensively and produced this lecture series giving us this concise overview.”

W.M. KECK OBSERVATORY: Astronomers discuss discoveries associated with the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTS, MANUFACTURES & COMMERCE: A large number of free downloadable MP3 lectures from the British RSA on a wide variety of topics, from politics and cultural/social trends to human rights. Highly recommended.

OYEZ: Downloadable MP3s of Supreme Court arguments – hear the attorneys plead their cases and listen as the Justices ask questions and argue back and forth. A fascinating and important historical resource. The files are large but of very good quality. From the Web site: "The OYEZ Project is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality 'tour' of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices."